He Passed!

Yesterday was a good day. After 4 weeks and 4 days of waiting, Wally finally got his CPA results and..... he passed! All those long hours spent studying, large amounts of caffeine consumed, and slightly stressed-out (I hesitate to say grumpy) moments were worth it. Okay, the last two apply to me. We celebrated by taking the kids to Ritzy's for dinner. It's a fun little restaurant with great salads, sandwiches, and ice cream and best of all, the kids eat FREE! We spent some much needed family time together, totally relaxed, just laughing and enjoying being together. And then back home to study for the next test. I know I'm supposed to have joy in the journey, but when this whole CPA journey is over, I will rejoice!

Aloha!

There are lots of benefits to living in an HOA. The grounds are always well-kept, we have community facilities such as swimming pools, and every few months we have neighborhood events. On June 7, our HOA hosted the first annual Tahitian Luau. We stopped by and had an awesome time! They brought in giant inflatable water slides, a big sand pile, Polynesian dancers, and dinner! Jackson thought he was in heaven playing on the mountain of sand and probably would have stayed there forever, had we not dragged him home. Chloe also loved the sand. She found a shovel and parked herself at the bottom of the pile. She graciously picked out all of the garbage and handed it to me after tasting it first, of course. Kelsie is getting to that too-cool-to-hang-out-with-mom-and-dad stage of her life and spent the evening with her friends. Since when did the teenage years begin at 8? The night ended with a performance by a group of Polynesian dancers. I enjoyed it right up until they started to look for volunteers to join them. All of Kelsie's friends went up and did the Hula and I was encouraging her to join them. "Come on, it will be fun!" I told her. And then when they wanted adult volunteers, I was out of there. I averted my eyes, shrunk down, and did my best to be invisible. "Aren't you going up there?" she asked me. And then I was faced with a dilemma. Do I set my pride aside and show my daughter that it's okay to go outside of your comfort zone, or do I flee? Yep, I fled. No sense in making a fool of myself in front of all my neighbors! All in all, we had a great time and will definitely go back next year.

No More Papers, No More Books....

Summertime. It's the time of year that kids live for and parents endure. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having Kelsie and Jackson at home, it's just that too much togetherness lends itself to disagreements. So while Kelsie and Jackson were celebrating, I was gearing up. I must admit that Kels and Jack had a great kick-off to summer with lots of fun end-of-year activities. Pre-school ended the last week of May with the main event being a graduation ceremony. The wind was a force to be reckoned with that evening and the kids had to hold their graduation caps to keep them from blowing away. The kids sang some songs, we snapped some photos, had some cake and celebrated the end of a very fun year.

Kelsie's last week of school seemed to drag on forever. Last year, the kids were out before Memorial Day. This year we finished on June 5. Unfortunately for Kelsie, I was finished before she was, which became apparent one morning as she packed up her backpack and saw the unfinished homework from the day before. Oops! We just forgot that she still had to actually work in school. Her end of year party was outside and HOT, but the kids had lots of fun.